Armed And Dangerous (The McKinnon Legends - The McKinnon American Men Book 2) (17 page)

He was really beginning to wonder what else she was capable of doing. She was not like any other women he knew, and he did not know what to think about her. Was she brave or just as unrestrained and reckless as he was, but just in a different way?

“Good work,” Robert nodded his approval to both Mason and Barbara.

Well, Robert reasoned, whatever happened to bring back the deep freeze between the two of them happened after the recon was completed. Either that or they were professional enough to push it aside. He felt Mason was too emotionally entrenched at this point to be that objective. Whatever the circumstance, it had happened since sunrise and he was not sure he really wanted to know given the history between these two.

“Tell me about Jesse?” Josh asked eager to hear word of his baby girl.

She nodded. “She is a brave little warrior, Josh. She will help us when the time comes, fully understanding what she needs to do. She is scared but holding up.” Barbara reached out placing a sympathetic hand on his arm. “We’ll get her out safe and sound, Josh. I promise on my life.”

Mason did not have any doubt someone’s life would be lost. He just prayed it was not any of theirs.

On the way back to their camp, Mason grabbed her by the arm, gently spinning her around. “You can just drop the cold shoulder, Barbara. You have to talk to me sometime and besides, I need to know, not only did you see Jesse, you spoke to her didn’t you?” Mason asked after they finished with the briefing. They were making their way back to their campsite bringing with them a wild boar to slow cook in a pit. It was their excuse for being out all night in camouflage. They were hunting should anyone ask. Barbara’s wound could well have been sustained from the boar, so chances were no one would even inquire. His tusks were enormous.

She hated it when he called her Barbie Doll. It was usually when he was feeling defensive. That much, she did know. However, so much of her conceptions of Mason were being shattered, and she was not sure she really understood him any longer. She questioned her motives, her understandings, and her feelings. She was beginning to doubt that she ever really had understood him. There were greater depths to him than she ever could have fathomed, and much to her dismay, she was really beginning to like him even if he did still chap her ass from time to time. She was seeing the more deeply intellectual and serious man, yet there was a playful side to him, as well. And like it or not, she was going to have to keep her secret. She was falling for him. As much as she tried to put the skids on her feelings, it was in vain. She was just trying to stop herself from feeling what she knew she had to push into the deep recesses of her heart.

He was so wrong for her. She could not taste this weakness. If she ever got a taste of that sweet candy, she might not be able to walk away unscathed when the time came and she would be damned before she became just one more conquest for Mason McKinnon, notorious ladies man.

She pulled her arm away and started walking away. If he wanted to talk he could do it walking. She was about to fall down and needed to keep moving.

“I did speak to her, yes. And I’m not giving you the cold shoulder, Mason. I'm just tired as hell, and I have nothing to say, and by your own admission, you like your women seen and not heard,” she shrugged.

“Real funny,” he said while pulling her up short again.

He looked at her face and for the first time saw just how tired she was. She was swaying on her feet, yet she had not uttered a single word of complaint. She was full of inner strength and tough as any man he knew, yet managed to stay all female. He was finding a new admiration for his boss. Any of the other women in his life would have been railing by now, screeching at him for the dreadful conditions and complaining that they needed a manicure.

In actuality, he would have probably promised them paradise only to deliver the current hell they were in at that moment. She had not said a word of complaint. He wished she would. She was giving him a massively cold shoulder, and he found that he did not like the feeling of her closing him out. He only had himself to blame and if he could go back and undo the last three or four years he would. That was not happening. He could do nothing about the past. It was just that, the past, but he might be able to have a better future with her as a friend rather than just a verbal sparring partner. He liked her. He liked her a lot.

“So, you really could have gotten her out last night,” he asked more for his own confirmation.

“I don’t know. Maybe,” she shrugged. “If my leg was one hundred percent, then I might have seized the opportunity. I felt it more prudent to follow the plan.”

He heard her heavy sigh. It went bone deep and he felt for her.

He could only imagine what the decision to leave the kid behind must have cost her. “Don’t second guess yourself, Doll. You did make the right decision.” He cupped her face and gently stroked her cheek with the pad of his thumb. “I’m just sorry you had to make that call at all, Barbara.”

She stared blankly at him. She did not know what to do with this Mason who was actually kind. It was throwing her off her game with him. Sparring or overbearing Mason, she could handle. She had years of practice in dealing with him. This guy was just too nice to even try to fight.

He wondered if his comment even registered with her. From her look, he wasn’t sure she was even still with him. He was close to shutdown himself. So, until they got some sleep, this conversation was going to have to wait.

He pushed her into the tent after he found them water to freshen up.

“Go in and get some rest,” he urged. “By the way, good work last night,” he complimented her.

She nodded her understanding. “I had good backup.”

He followed suit after a few minutes to give her some privacy. Dropping the sides down on the tent allowed for more darkness, but left the tent stifling. Mason opted to split the difference leaving the flap facing the sun and facing the camp closed. The other two would remain up for ventilation. He crawled in beside her to get some much needed sleep. She was lying there on top of the sleeping bags sound asleep.

He pushed her over to make room for him. She sighed and rolled over settling against him in sleep. She trusted him last night to have her back, and she trusted him to keep her secure now. He just prayed that trust was not misplaced.

Mason realized where he was instantly. They were in the jungle and it was night. He had overslept. The night sounds grated his nerves and were loud like the buzzing of a thousand florescent light fixtures.

He felt her breathing, ragged and labored, beside him. He reached out to touch her for reassurance. She turned into his arms, warm and willing, only it wasn’t Barbara. It was the face of one of the regular dancers at the club he frequented.

She was old, haggard, and completely worn from her life in the fast lane. He pushed her away disgusted by her heavy smell of cigarettes and beer. Her appearance was anything but appealing. He looked down at his hands. They were gnarled with age, his knuckles twisted from arthritis. She laughed at him. “This is all you got, Mason. I am all your life ever got you.”

He pushed away from the nightmare.

Looking for Barbara, he needed to see her. He tossed the tent flap back. There she was just as the previous nights before moving gracefully through her Thai Chi. Her grace and beauty were reassuring as he stood there at a distance just breathing her in. She felt like a spring rain, cleansing his mind and spirit of all the dirt collected from the years of living hard and fast.

Out of the shadows, Carlos Del Torres appeared, he was coming fast and out of nowhere rushing her from behind. Mason felt his heart race and his blood curdle as he tried to yell for her to look behind, but he was paralyzed with fear, his voice silent.

He watched in horror as Carlos put a gun to her back and pulled the trigger. She fell in slow motion. “Barbara! No!” He yelled before putting seven bullets into Del Torres.

“Mason! Mason, wake up!” Barbara was lying across him trying to keep his big body down. She surmised the nightmare must have been horrific for him.

“Shuuu. It’s all right.” She stroked his face and head. “It’s all right. It’s just a dream. I’m right here. I’m here.”

He pulled her tightly against him. She could hear his ragged breathing and the fast beat of his heart.

“I lost you,” he exhaled, finally able to feel the cold fear slowly leaving him. He held her head to his chest. He could see it was almost dusk. They had slept most of the day and time was drawing near for them to go. He framed her face bringing her close. “We have an audience,” he whispered.

Slowly, bringing her face to his lips, she whispered back. “I know.”

She understood that after the way they had taken ten steps back today for him this kiss was probably for show. However, for her this kiss was payment for all the danger he was about to put her through.

“I’ll take one for the team,” she agreed.

"And I’ll take one just for me," Mason vowed.

For her, this was payment for all the hell and arguments he had forced her to be a willing participant through the years. This kiss was for her, the woman, who wanted to see what it would be like to have a man as beautiful and virile as Mason pour on her his full and undivided attention. She wanted to let him lavish his considerable charms and talents on her. And he was doing it freely and willingly. He would be the kind of man to leave a woman breathless, spent, but longing for more. He would totally dominate a woman and in this she would allow him to be the total Alpha male. There was no other way to let this affair play itself out. For the first time in her life, she was going to let a man take full and total control of her body, but not her mind or soul. It was an experience she wanted purely on a physical plane. Anything else was foolhardy. Anything else would only lead to heartache. She would let him lead in this dance of sensuality. She knew she was just a challenge to him, but right at that moment it really didn’t matter. It was more than just about having great sex. It was about connecting with a person at some deeper level. She wanted this just as much as he wanted the additional notch and the bragging rights to turning her back to the light.

Or so he thinks he’s turning me, she thought just before all logical thought left her altogether.

“Let me know when I’ve gone too far and I’ll stop,” he breathed into her ear seconds before taking a delicious nibble from the tender flesh under her ear lobe.

He was winning and losing, but what a way to lose, he thought. He felt her relaxing under his tender assault. Then just as quickly he found himself below her, her thighs and firm ass pressing into his pelvis. He groaned with the shear pleasure of the pressure of her on him.

“If we have gotten to that point, Mason, why bother stopping.”

She kissed him deeply, freely, openly.

Her words almost careened him over the edge as he took her shirt and ripped it from the neck to the navel.

God, he thought, she is so fine. She would put any of his exotic dancer friends to shame. She had a beautiful body, he added, as he went in for a taste. She pushed him back down.

“Uh’hu, red light,” she stopped him short. Their audience was gone, giving them the privacy they needed as a newly married couple. She had also come back to her senses.

He dropped his head with an audible moan. “You lay a feast like that out there for a starving man and stop him short. Awww now, that’s just mean.” He grinned in spite of the discomfort.

It was all a game to him, she thought. So, two can play this game, she thought as she ran a nail past his collar bone and to his navel and back.

She laughed deep in the throat as she leaned down pressing her flesh to his bear chest. The feeling was erotic and sensual. “No meaner than you running off without me to have all the fun last night. I love a good hunt as well as the next girl. I love the booty from the chase even more.” Her double meaning was very clear.

Then he remembered her shoulder and leg. She was on the injured reserve list in his mind. She had held that information back understanding he would react the very way his was feeling. Only difference was he was now reacting out of positive feelings for her.

“You doing better?” he asked lifting her up and off of his chest careful of her leg. If he wasn’t going to get laid then the least he could do was give her some relief of a different nature.

He set her beside him and readjusting, he sat up. He placed her back to him stretching his long legs out straddling her. Slowly, he ran his finger tips up her arms to rest on her shoulders. Gently, he began to massage her in the places he discovered over the last few days she hurt the most. Almost immediately, she began to truly relax.

“How is this? Let me know if it’s too much pressure.” He questioned close to her ear noticing the goose bumps rising as he breathed on her neck.

His desires were shifting away from himself. And to his surprise he found it satisfying for him to give her the pleasure he felt he could share with her. Her skin was soft and supple. Her muscles toned and firm beneath his touch.

“Nice,” she sighed as she dropped her chin into her chest and relaxed under the tender yet firm touch. The night before was hard on her. Her neck and shoulders were stiff from the tension. They had been playing a very treacherous game of cat and mouse with Emilio’s men.

“I’m sorry, Baby Doll,” he apologized, giving her neck a lingering kiss, extending the olive branch as he continued to massage her sore and taut shoulders and upper back.

“You should be. That was my favorite t-shirt. I’d just gotten it broken in, too,” she teased looking back over her shoulder at him.

She got the drift of what he was saying, yet there was no need to ask for clemency. She had already forgiven him. Life was too short to hold a grudge, especially if there were more important places to shift the energy.

Mason's smile was genuine and there were times when he smiled like this that she could see where a girl could get completely lost to his charm. She was not immune, either.